Residents reluctant to aid slayings probe

Keith Paul

Friday, March 23, 2001 | 11:23 a.m.

Clergy members have gone into a community plagued by eight gang-related slayings to urge residents to put aside their fear of gangs and mistrust of police and give information to solve the crimes.

Thus far, police have not charged anyone with the slayings, and officers say they may not be successful in solving the crimes unless they get help from residents who have been reluctant to come forward.

"They need to talk to police out of necessity. Our children are losing their lives," Mujahid Ramadan, executive director of Nevada Partners, said. "We started street mediations (with residents) last week to ease their fears and show people that the death of our children is greater than any problem that they have had with the police."

Since Feb. 15 when a church deacon was killed by a stray bullet, seven others have been killed in the area of Martin Luther King Boulevard near Carey Avenue and Lake Mead Boulevard.

Police blame two warring gangs for the shootings. One man was killed during an apparently poorly executed drug deal. Police say the gangs control the drug trade in that area.

The area of the slayings is on both sides of the Las Vegas-North Las Vegas city boundaries, with the first four killings occurring in North Las Vegas and the next four in Metro Police jurisdiction.

"I understand that they are afraid to give us information, but the shootings will continue until the police catch (the suspects) and put them away," Lt. Art Redcay, a North Las Vegas Police spokesman, said. "Unless we just happen to be there and see it happen, we rely on the citizen to help us identify the people responsible."

Police have urged citizens to phone in information anonymously, but few, if any, tips have come in.

A march organized by community, clergy and activist groups for Saturday will urge residents to give police information and educate them on ways to give anonymous tips, Ramadan said.

The march will start at 3 p.m. Saturday at the West Las Vegas Library on Lake Mead Boulevard and end at the Martin Luther King statue for a vigil.

"We're not pointing fingers at the police," Ramadan said. "The community also needs to do intervention."

Even as Metro and North Las Vegas police have increased the number of patrols and detectives in the area since the slayings, there have been more shootings.

Several area residents have complained the police aren't doing enough to stop the violence and solve the homicides, but Lt. Jim Owens of Metro's gang unit said the police are making a lot arrests.

"We're doing a lot out there, but we don't want to get to the point where the decent people over there feel like we are just descending on them," Owens said.

Owens said police were investigating a recent drive-by shooting when a car load of men drove through the crime scene tape. Police found each of them was in a gang in the rival gang's territory and each had a gun. The men were arrested.

And sometimes the police find their suspects from previous crimes are the victims in current shootings. Such was the case when 22-year-old Quincy M. Lovette was shot Tuesday in a drive-by on Nelson Avenue in North Las Vegas.

Lovette went to University Medical Center and gave a false name. Lovette was wanted on an attempted murder charge in Metro's jurisdiction from a shooting in November. He was identified and arrested.

But in most cases, to solve a homicide, police need a combination of evidence and people talking with detectives, Lt. Wayne Petersen of Metro's homicide unit said.

"Certainly in these cases the community residents have real fears of retaliation, but unfortunately allowing these armed, violent criminals to stay on the street allows them to continue their violent lifestyle," he said. "We can't solve crime by magic. We need forensic evidence and cooperating witnesses."

Redcay said police can solve crimes through information provided by anonymous tips.

"There is no way we can solve them on the information we have now," Redcay said.